as the arab spring of balls into new constitutions for countries like tunisia and egypt the opposition in bufferin struggles to find a foothold but what makes this country different are to travel to the small gold state to find out. and a u.s. military aircraft carrier is back in virginia after a time spent patrolling the waters in the middle east but what was the u.s.s. eisenhower during doing during his time in the strait of hormuz and what is it capable of we take a deep dive into one of the most powerful ships in the world. plus british mega bank h.s.b.c. just settled with the u.s.

government for alleged money laundering already the bank is back in court charged with predatory lending in three counties in the state of georgia do they have a fighting chance. it's thursday december twenty seventh five pm in washington d.c. i'm megan lopez and you're watching r.t. . well we begin in bahrain tonight a country that played a major role in the arab spring uprisings but one that often overlooked was overlooked in the news coverage while the world watched the egypt and libya toppled their dictators the people of bahrain had a different narrative now to give you some background on the country bahrain is a small island nation off the coast of saudi arabia in the gulf it's been under the rule of the all khalifa family for more than two hundred years the country is a major headquarters for the u.s. navy earning its leaders the support of both saudi arabia as well as the u.s.

so while the u.s. government condemns the actions in syria many allege it's also sending arms to bahrain to quell the violence there r.t. international correspondent alexei euro cesky brings us the latest report from this embattled nation when it came to supporting calls for democracy in the middle east and north african states while denouncing government sponsored violence leaders of the west were vocally critical because he has lost legitimacy to lead and he must leave out a very clear message for the president has said which is it is time for him to go but when scenes of violent clashes between riot police and reform complainer scame from bahrain the definition of democracy shifted and there was a suspiciously muted response. in the summer the u.s. state department came up with a statement expressing its concerns over the human rights situation and alleged torture in bahrain this was only several months after washington had restarted weapons sales to the gulf states dissenters in bahrain have been directing anger at

their government for months but now stop arming the killers is a message they are more often sending out to the west somehow or the bahrain blood is worthless and the libyan blood is more important. book critical than siad youssif often travels to europe to direct attention to what he believes to be brutal repression in his country he and others like him have managed to alert human rights organizations but that's as far as it goes two months ago. clinton made a statement about bahrain about the human rights situation in bahrain and. one protester was killed and show you that there is no in fact in the ground we are a victim in bahrain because we live in our country they condemn the violence committed by the bahraini government against the peaceful protests there and behind but that is continuing for decades bahrain has been one of washington's closest

allies in the gulf its naval base houses the u.s. fifth fleet and six thousand troops the seemingly every versatile decision made decades ago despite the growing anti-american mood among some of bahrain's neighbors anything happens in the bush era plan or any of the other plans that there are allegations of a nuclear weapon being built we are very close to all of those sites and we have to make the right decision in preventing any kind of catastrophe coming here we are all are not capable of doing that and that's why we turn to our friends and allies officials firmly deny that washington plays a decisive role in preventing any revolution happening in bahrain but even the bahraini government's information minister suggests the us main fact be playing a double game. i think the body opus ition is a key ally of the us leader of the opposition and that they risk members of the opposition has close ties with foreign embassies in bahrain we can leak some of the

old many documents proving that if this is true then washington sitting comfortably it can quickly switch sides but for now the opposition in bahrain is left to wonder as to why it calls to support democracy from some are less worthy of attention than this looks emotional ski reporting from the kinda bahrain now similar to what's going on in syria some back rainy days are struggling to topple a leader who is desperate to keep control of the country as a result peaceful protesters are being hunted down arrested tortured interrogated and even murder to look further into the conflict in bahrain as well as the international response i was joined earlier by r.t. arabic correspondent rym dia she began by explaining why we're not hearing more about what's going on in the country. the main reason why we're not hearing about what's going on in bahrain is because the media decides to ignore what's going on in bahrain and when i say the media it's not just the foreign media it's also

a lot of the arab media as well what's going on in bahrain is basically another spring that people in that country thought that they were having just like other neighboring countries but for their dismay their coals that not reach any ears in the arab world and in the international. community and so far we there are a lot of process we see that on you tube we see that and blogs activists report on these. activities there but no one reports about these activities so let's talk about the differences between syria and behind on one hand the u.s. is condemning syria's president bashar al assad for what he is doing to his people and trying to keep control of of his country but on the other hand we have these human rights abuses that are happening up behind and the u.s. is ignoring it and possibly even arming the country's leader so what is with this this double standard when it comes to human rights

a lot of people would tell you about the u.s. is actually talking to speaking out against the issue of the violations and beheading but if you look at what exactly they're saying it's not the same tone it's not the same accusations it's not it's it's completely different from what they would accuse the syrian regime of. what they're doing people would tell you you know what because the syrian regime is doing a lot well our you know far more damage to the cities to the people than what. a new regime and. a newly valid i mean the country is a lot smaller the kingdom is a lot smaller the book relation is not as big as the one in syria so you can't compare casualties in these two countries but it's a strategic importance. part of the arab world of the gulf potteries to the u.s. and so far the u.s. thinks that by keeping silent maybe or not by or not accusing.

the regime of what they're doing exactly they're basically helping through the stability in that region in that part of the world so i mean one thing that we have seen going against the syrian government we have had the strong us talk against bashar al assad we have seen them try to impose sanctions try to to to limit the violence to the country and to limit the power that bashar al assad has what are we seeing with bahrain is anything happening at this point of that and why other than talk. i mean there are people with the audio that there may be some some who are trying to silence the human rights organizations who are trying to speak out against what's going on in bahrain no sanctions no talk of maybe sales of weapons through the beheading energy and then of that and actually the coals that the people are making. the cries that the people are making are not getting to any here in the u.s. or in any other foreign country

a lot of people would decide to just ignore what's going on in bahrain and again not just in the in the west but also in the arab countries a lot of people wouldn't even talk about what's going on in bahrain and we so what the some of the arab countries how they hope to have a new vision when the when the protests started in that country they sent troops to help. crush if you want to use that word the protesters they were so what happened in the. square and that country and no one talked about that so. people simply decided to ignore what's going on in bahrain and maybe a lot of it has to do also with the fact that the protesters in that part of the country or in that part of the region are shiites and the regime is sunni and the help that the regime is getting is getting from so many governments. now as i mentioned earlier buffer a new is home to the headquarters of the u.s. navy's fifth fleet a fleet responsible for trial wing regional shipping lanes assisting with missions

in iraq and afghanistan and monitoring a ron as tensions grow this map demonstrates the regional importance of the country it also shows a dominating american presence normally the us has two carriers patrolling the region but one of those ships commissioned to protect american interests in the middle east is the u.s.s. eisenhower a ship that recently returned home from a six month voyage and r.t. air r.t. correspondent liz wall was a norful for genuine when the ship docked and found out what this beast of the seas capable of and where it's headed next. just in time for the holidays the u.s.s. eisenhower makes its way back from the middle east on board about five thousand sailors. ike as it's known as one of ten aircraft carriers the u.s. navy now has been commissioned the massive military ship has an estimated worth of four point five billion dollars over a thousand feet long i can carry eighty to ninety aircraft that includes planes and

helicopters soon drones will be on board ike and other aircraft carriers like it before returning to its home base here in norfolk virginia the u.s.s. eisenhower was one of the largest instruments of power in the persian gulf as part of the fifth fleet there was ready to respond in the event of an emergency in the middle east for six months the u.s.s. eisenhower was tasked with keeping the peace in the waters of the middle east we completed a six month deployment over the mediterranean european go the indian ocean there we executed our mission to set the conditions for economic prosperity and maritime security part of that means patrolling the strait of hormuz a critical waterway through which twenty percent of the world's oil is shipped every day iran has threatened to close the strait in response to economic sanctions from the u.s. the sanctions are aimed of forcing iran to abandon its nuclear program eisenhower

was there during a very tense period of time between you know iran and israel and we absolutely supported the fifth fleet mission of president and strength and partnership with the regional gulf coalition with ike patrolling the persian gulf it serves to show the power of u.s. naval force morning iran not to close the waterway but i think that it was very important that we were there during that important time as relations all the way up to the national level were very tense beyond the iran i was also ready to respond in syria especially of. country ramped up threats of using chemical weapons and also conducted missions in support of the us war in afghanistan we reassure our allies in the mediterranean in the arabian gulf and we deter any or adversaries that were out there for the next couple of months ike will be at its home base for maintenance but come late february and set to make the trek back to the persian gulf keeping a watchful eye on a troubled region of the world in your folk virginia was wall r.t.

. let's bring our terabit correspondent rym back into the conversation hey there rima so obviously this the u.s. has a huge interest in this region and us to necessitate an entire fleet being stationed there why. well as you mentioned earlier this is a geo strategic. location for the u.s. not just the hey in the whole gulf area the location of that of those countries basically let the u.s. control that whole area this is where all the oil is from and this is. this is basically you can control the middle east from there it's close enough to iran close enough to syria close enough to many other parts of the world where the u.s. has a lot of interest they are so it me ask you this is the train really as strategically important given all the other countries that are around as the u.s. government would have to believe or are there other countries or maybe as strategically important that the u.s.

should maybe be taking an interest and i think the importance of one country over another is decided by what's going on on the ground in that particular time in that particular region i think all the countries in that part of the world are equally important to the u.s. really what happens or what decides which country is more important to over another is just what's going on in that particular country or in a neighboring country for that matter for instance behind or saudi arabia became more important when things started to happen and behave behind is going to be more important for the us is there any things going on in saudi arabia or any of the neighboring arab countries the gulf countries in particular now remote we only have about a minute left i have to ask you this what about the relationship between the different monarchies what's happening i mean obviously they're watching one leader after another be toppled are they kind of coming together what's their relationship like well we so happen what a lot of analysts would tell you is that what they are standing up for each other they're helping each other out we so what happened when process started in morocco

monarchies basically said dialogue is more important than anything else and they actually help that country to boost the economy help boost the economy of that country we saw what happened in my hand as well saudi arabia was willing to send troops to buy in to help. you know silence the opposition there what's happening and what we see is happening right now is those monarchies are basically defending each other they did not stand up for. for instance mubarak in egypt while the whole time he was still supportive of all of the decisions taken by the arab league which were basically decisions not much liked by the arab people so basically those monarchies are saying where is the power in the region where the stable regimes right now and we have to defend each other and that's what we see is happening very interesting conversation and definitely of the arab spring isn't over yet rym of who have to r.t.

arabic correspondent thank you for joining us. well still ahead here on our t.v. full of us once shame on you fool us twice shame on h.s.b.c. for money laundering to predatory lending schemes this is one bank that has a rap sheet as long as its banking policies will unveil some of its crimes next. the following are going. to be going to.

say. the worst you're going to. the white house are going to get a radio guy. from a cricket. club or a politician because you've never seen anything like that i'm told. six six six

. welcome back well it's hard to say i'm sorry even when the guilt rests firmly on your shoulders but the british bank h.s.b.c. has gotten pretty good at it lately after a string of money laundering allegations that turned out to be true the bank a global financial leader has a rap sheet that would send any average american to life behind bars without the possibility of parole just in the past couple of years h.s.b.c. has been working hand in hand with mexican drug cartels accepting exchanging billions of dollars of blood drenched money it has conducted business with iran over twenty five thousand transactions that we know of and has also handled finances for cuba syria libya and several other nations despite international

sanctions against the countries what's more for years after the nine eleven terror attacks that took the lives of thousands including sixty seven british people h.s.b.c. had a partnership with the ol raji bank is a saudi bank that has ties to al qaeda and is part of osama bin laden so-called golden chain it also supported some of the nine eleven hijackers as well and most recently the bank is accused of predatory and discriminatory lending practices against minorities here in the u.s. but while the federal government might be reluctant to punish this mega bank three counties in georgia are fighting back actually suing the bank for allegedly costing them hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses and damage to their tax bases by aggressively signing minority borrowers to housing loans that the banks knew the people wouldn't be able to pay back it's a case that could set a precedent for how banks that engage in predatory lending will be dealt with in the future to talk more about h.s.b.c.'s not so secret scheming i was joined

earlier by carl harrington kyle harrington that is founder and managing partner of harrington capital management i first asked him what are the companies in atlanta suing for and what is really going to come out of all of this. well i think the following right any predatory or one tone approach to lending practices associated with individuals you know has to it cannot go without punishment and i know that we're all responsible for reading our documents and and putting together our financial statements in a way and making sure we've read all of the footnotes as well as dotting all the i's and crossing the t.'s but if in any way there was a macchiavelli an approach or deceptive approach to these lending practices and these counties in atlanta then you know there is there is a case to make that this was done by the bank and let's face it you just outlined this h.s.b.c.

has had a reputational. situation over the over the last few years with the mexican cartels and with this al-qaeda situation so it would not surprise me that the bank would go down this path and if in fact they did then these lawsuits have merit to them so kyle talk about these predatory lending practices how did they target minorities in these and stand says. well i mean you know they they can go to the minority areas in the atlanta base and start wetting the appetite of these people with respect to loans that they would nor never really be able to get and maybe for the first two years these loans are below market interest rates but what they don't highlight is that in the third or fourth or fifth year megan the rate balloons up to a significantly higher rate that these individuals can no longer afford their mortgages

or properties that they own and so therefore a foreclosure process happens and that costs these local state governments you know monies to foreclose on properties and go through the process of collecting the properties that they have loans against and the process and then you can see the the process just unfolds in a very negative way for everybody so i think they target them maybe because they think that they're not going to read you know the footnotes and look at all the paperwork with a very perceptive eye and as a result they sign the paperwork and the loan goes through and then here we are two or three years later and they no longer can afford to pay the mortgages that they have on the properties that they own and i've also heard that the people that are borrowers that can afford to have these loans at this bank was actually driving them into even more expensive loans that they knew they wouldn't be able to pay off slummy ask you this why is the federal government letting bygones be bygones so now that it's up to localities that they have to fend for themselves. well i think that

you know it's going to be on the states in particular where these loans were made but i think it's some point like i said i am one that believes in the responsibility of one's own financial statement and balance you know that you do have to read the documents before you sign anything but i think the federal government's going to have to step in here and take a closer look at exactly any fraud or deceptive measures that have maybe taken place here with respect to the banks in those specific counties now what we're also seeing with the as far as that going with trading with iran and working deals with cuba and mexican drug cartels the bank has agreed to a settlement of one point nine billion dollars as retribution for working with these cartels example except that amount of money is being described as a historic amount i want you to listen to this and then i'll get your opinion one of the world's largest banks h.s.b.c.

has agreed to make the biggest payment in history in a settlement over money laundering instead it's agreed to pay a record one point nine billion dollars fine to settle the case today the bank agreed to pay a record amount to the united states government nearly two billion dollars says that excuse what they have done morally they've not financially they say and the feds here in this country and the department of justice say they are paying their dues so one hundred sturrock payoff now one point nine billion dollars might seem like a lot but in the grand scheme of things it's really not that much kyle i mean one point nine two billion dollars settlement is in response to sixty trillion dollars in monitor transactions so we did a little research of our own and we found out that this is how it would compare to an average american salary we found that this means they paid one point sixty one dollars sixty cents for every fifty thousand dollars that they turned their cheek on so that's more or less that's less than a slap on the rest of my writing. oh yeah big time i mean you know what that tells

me meghan is the following that they're guilty that they know they've gotten their hand caught in the cookie jar and that they're willing to settle for an amount of money however it sounds egregious in nature like you highlighted for a bank to pay that amount but based on the amount that might have been at risk or fraudulent amounts that seems as if you just highlighted it i mean you know a dollar sixty on fifty thousand is actually a lot less than a little tiny slap on the wrist so my guess is that this is how they settled in an effort to avoid a very disastrous run on the bank and run on the stock now here's another question i have to ask and that romney the supreme court and others have said time and again that corporations are people but if that's the case why isn't this negative a corporation being punished like you or i would be and what happens like to me for instance if i did the things that h.s.b.c. has admitted to. you know and even in my business at harrington capital management

you know we're dotting i's and crossing t's more than ever because of the increased scrutiny in the regulatory environment is just that it really kind of it's disenchanting to see a major bank like this run into issues this major and not have a more heightened scrutiny or punishment level than they've already had and so it's disenchanting meghan in a big way let me ask you very quickly we only have about fifteen seconds left but if it was up to you how would you see h.s.b.c. punished well i think that there has to be fines levied against the bank that are much more egregious in nature and i want to make sure that the people that were at risk of being you know defrauded get paid back every single dime that they that they put at risk and then some that would to me be you know a satisfactory result all right carl kyle harrington founder of the harrington capital management thank you so much for your time and your opinions there happy

holidays me. well for weeks now we've heard of the fiscal looming though for the looming fiscal cliff and what it can mean to our taxes and our military essentially the cliff is a mix of expiring budgets and tax laws that spending cuts would actually go into effect in congress if it fails to act and yes economists agree that going over this proverbial fiscal cliff could very well launch the u.s. into a congressionally mandated recession we know that americans are worried about their own finances but here's a story of how the threat of the fiscal cliff is already affecting the country in unexpected ways deep budget cuts across the country forced the hand of an organ county jail which has released thirty inmates because it simply cannot afford to board them any longer and here's the kicker according to the associated press less than an hour after one of these low level offenders walked out a story say he was demanding that a bank teller hand over money but the story doesn't end there because of the steady

reduction in federal subsidies there are fewer jail beds sheriff patrols parole officers and specialized investigators and prosecutors are now tossing out more than a quarter of the cases that cross their desks simply because there aren't enough people to deal with them and it's not only organ dealing with this problem the mare of providence rhode island said that the fiscal cliff could have a profound and draconian consequences on her city since the automatic cuts with threaten law enforcement patrols and training california is also cutting its budget and lowering prison populations so it looks like the fiscal cliff will inevitably have a bigger impact on the u.s. than just taxes alone and as for the inmate turned bank robber in oregon here remains in custody he has not been indicted on the most recent arrest he has not been asked to enter a plea and his court date has not been scheduled meaning that in oregon anyway just

because you do the crime that doesn't necessarily mean you need to pay the time that is of course until congress settles down and starts taking this fiscal spliffs talk seriously. and that's going to do it for now for us if you missed any part of today's interviews you are in luck we post all of our interviews online in full just go to youtube dot com slash r t america and there you can click comment and for the stories to your friends and don't forget we want to know what you want us to cover so don't forget to leave us your opinions and story suggestions on that website as well and for the latest information on the stories we covered and a few that we didn't have time to get to today check out our web site at r.t. dot com slash usa and you blake and his web team is always working hard to bring us the latest and greatest information coming out around the world expect on five or topics and to find out what i'm not when i'm doing when i'm not bring you today's top stories follow me on twitter.